Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred
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Science and a Future Life (Myers), 47, 83
science fiction, 144; and abduction, 166–68, 209–12, 273; and alien hermeneutic, 153; and alien invasion theme, 124, 128, 153, 158, 162, 248; and altered states, 6; American and British versions of as originating in French genre of le merveilleux scientifique, 307n20; as back door for gnosis to enter culture, 31; and Buddhism, 247; and Christian mysticism, 208–9; and coincidences with UFO experiences (1947 to present), 207–8; and dialectic of culture and consciousness, 210; and Dick, Philip, 31–32; and the fantastic, 5, 31; and flying saucers, 206–15, 240, 249; and folklore, 173–74, 243–44; and Fort, 97, 100, 122–24, 140; and gnosis of the future, 187–88, 194; and hagiography, 209; and the mystical, 31, 209, 300n34; and NASA, 303n42; and Nelson, Victoria, 31; and neuroscience, 267; and the occult, 167; and quantum mystical movement, 304n34; and teleportation, 137; as thought experiment, 252; and the UFO phenomenon, 6, 166–67, 207–10, 214, 249; and Vallee, 144–45, 153, 166–68, 187, 243–44
Science-fiction et soucoupes volantes or Science Fiction and Flying Saucers (Méheust), 206, 214, 215
science mysticism, 9, 123–24, 300n34
scrying, 12
Secret, The (Rhonda Byrne), 223
Secret Life of a Superpower, The (Kripal), 5–6
Secret Life of Puppets, The (Nelson), 30
Secret of Doctor Honigberger, The (Eliade), 18
Secret Teachings of All Ages, The (Hall), 192
Sédir, Paul, Histoire et Doctrines des Rose + Croix, 192
Sells, Michael A., Mystical Languages of Unsaying, 292n49
Septes Sermones ad Mortuos or Seven Sermons to the Dead (Jung), 14
Serios, Ted, 6, 193, 285, 308n35
Shakespeare, William, 98; As You Like It, 98
Sherman, Jacob H., ed., The Participatory Turn, 312n36
Sherrington, Charles, 262
Shklovskii, I. S., Intelligent Life in the Universe, 302n27
Shweder, Richard, Thinking Through Cultures, 293n58
Sidgwick, Eleanor Mildred, 56
Sidgwick, Henry: and Cambridge, 48–49, 52; elected president of S.P.R., 54; on ghosts, 48; humanizing stories of, 49; influenced by Crookes, William, 53; and King, John, 296n58; and losing faith, 48–49; as mentor to Myers, 48; and Sidgwick group, 49, 56
sightings: Ann Arbor case, 301n8; Basel, 153; Brazilian Wave of 1977, 183–84; European wave of 1954, 149; Nuremburg, 153; typology of, 154–55
Simon, Benjamin, 165–66
Simonton, Joe, 162
Sinclair, Upton, Mental Radio, 298n112
Slone, D. Jason, Religion and Cognition, 310n3
Smith, Jonathan Z., Imagining Religion, 294n9
Smith, Paul H., Reading the Enemy’s Mind, 305n66
Snow, Rev. H., 50
Society for Psychical Research. See S.P.R.
Socrates, 204
Solovyov, Vladimir, 104
Somnambulisme et médiumnite (Méheust), 214, 220, 241, 244
Spencer, Herbert, 99
Spielberg, Steven, 144, 155, 252, 303n35
Spiritual Brain, The (Beauregard), 261, 311n26
Spiritual Encounters with Unusual Light Phenomena (Fox), 287
Spiritual in Art, The (Kandinsky), 16
S.P.R., 10; adoption of term psychical, 8; and Barrett, William, 53, 54; and Blavatsky, Madame, 51, 55; founding of, 8, 54; Gurney, Edmund, 47, 54–56, 284, 294n9, 296n62; Hodgson, Richard, 47, 54, 55–57, 89, 237; Journal, 47, 54, 70, 94; and Leuba’s psychical research encyclopedia entry, 10; and Moses, William Stainton, 54, 56, 70; and Palladino, Eusapia, 49, 51, 52–53, 296n53; and Piper, Leonora, 13, 56–57; Podmore, Frank, 55–57, 78, 284; and sexuality of Spiritualism movement, 50–51; and Sidgwick, Eleanor Mildred, 56; and Sidgwick group, 49, 56; and telepathy, 13. See also Blum, Deborah; Gauld, Alan; Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (Myers); James, William; Myers, Frederick W. H.; Proceedings; Sidgwick, Henry
SRI: and Augmentation of the Human Intellect project of, 175; and Gellar, Uri, 178; and mix of open and secret research, 175, 178; and Price, Pat, 177, 304n61; and remote viewing, 175–79, 181, 186, 304n61, 305n65; and Swann, Ingo, 176–77, 178; Vallee’s resignation from, 180
Stableford, Brian, H. G. Wells, 300n36
Stace, William, 311n26
Stanford University, 176, 181, 284
Stargate Program, 178
Star Trek, 137, 154, 303
Star Wars, 281
Steiner, Rudolph, 16, 192
Steinmeyer, Jim, 99–100, 103, 140, 298n1; Charles Fort, 299n4
Stekel, Wilhelm, 14
Stevenson, Ian, Reincarnation and Biology, 285
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 86
sticky thread, 4
Strassman, Rick, Inner Paths to Outer Space, 313n24
Sturrock, Peter, 181, 284
subliminal, the, 58, 66; definition of, 62; and evolution, 69–70, 83; and Human Personality, 46–47, 61; and magnetic sleep, 220–21; and premonitions, 73; and telepathy, 74–82, 85; and trauma, 59; and unconscious, 63–64, 220–21; uprushes, 47, 61, 86–87; and World as Two, 67–68
Sub-Space (Vallee), 167
Superman, 73, 83, 214–15. See also Kent, Clark
supernormal, the, 6, 9, 10, 58, 61, 85; coining of term, 66; and dreams, 78; and evolution, 66–75; and filter thesis, 256; and Fort’s wild talents, 96, 170, 217, 224; and the mystical, 82; powers, 69, 72, 83, 170, 217; and superpower of pop culture, 224; unconscious as window into, 265; and Vallee’s category of psychical capacities, 170, 217
Super-Sargasso Sea, 96, 109, 125, 127. See also Sargasso Sea
Sutin, Lawrence, 32; Divine Invasions, 293n64; In Pursuit of Valis, 293n65
swamp gas, 152, 301n8
Swann, Ingo, 51, 176–78, 304n57, 304n61, 304n64; Psychic Sexuality, 295n50; To Kiss Earth Good-Bye, 304n57
Swedenborg, Emanuel, 11, 50, 234
Swords, Michael D., 149
Symposium, 87–90, 298n121
synchronicity: category forged by Jung, 14; and comparative method, 75; Dick’s fascination with, 32; as expression of unus mundus, 110; hermeneutical nature of, 200; and meaning events, 25–26; and Méheust, 200, 212, 245; and Myers’s coincidental, 74; and reading the paranormal writing us, 74; and Vallee, 189, 245, 306n94
Szilard, Leo, 148
Tallis, Frank, Hidden Minds, 312n31
Tandy, T. M., case of, 76
Tantra, 18, 19, 163, 311
Tao of Physics, The (Capra), 123, 300n34
Targ, Russell, 52, 176–79, 296n52, 304n57–64; Mind-Reach, 178, 290n15
Tarkington, Booth, 97, 140
Taves, Ann, 290n2; What Matters? manuscript, 310n5
Taylor, Jill Bolte, 259–61, 265–67; My Stroke of Insight, 311n11
technology: advanced as indistinguishable from magic, 143; and altered states, 173; and coining of telepathy, 79; and colonization, 124; and folklore, 147, 163, 173–74; of future projected back, 173–74; and inventors involved in psychical, 80; and Michaud, A. G., 302n20; and Myers’s artifices, 65; psychic, 173, 185; and remote viewing, 175–81; and the sacred, 307–8n20; Soviet, 154, 185–86; stealth, 302n23; transcending the physical, 173, 182; and UFO phenomenon as symbolic, 167, 171, 173
tectonic strain hypothesis, 280
telaesthesia, 86
telepathy, 237; and author’s category of Energy, 86–87; as category of suspicion, 81; as causal mechanism, 74–82; and Darwin and Wallace, 295n45; and Derrida, Jacques, 16, 291n29; and erotic, 85, 90; and evolution, 69, 84, 295n45; and Fort, 104; and Freud, 14–16, 289n2, 291n24; history of term, 38, 81, 298n108; and King, Stephen, 37–38; and Leuba’s “Psychical Research” entry, 10; and mental control, 229; and mental radio, 229; and Myers’s comparative method, 75; and mystical humanism, 298n113; as reduction to irreducible nature of human consciousness, 298n113; and S. P. R., 10, 13; and Targ, Russell, 52; and telaesthesia, 86–87; and Twain, Mark, 295n45; and white crow argument, 234; writing as, 37–38. See also remote viewing
tele
portation, 25, 137, 140, 178, 208, 248
Teresa of Avila, 209
tertium quid, 40, 155, 254, 294n9
Tesla, Nikola, 80, 112, 145
Thompson, General Edmund R., 283–84
Thompson, Rosina, 89
Thompson, William Irwin, 159; Evil and the World Order, 302n29
Thoreau, Henry David, 95
Thouless, Robert, 8
Thoulet, J., 78–79
Thurston, Herbert, 208–9; The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism, 307n17
Todorov, Tzvetan, 293n69; adoption of fantastic narrative from, 26; The Fantastic, 299n27; fantastic literature defined by, 34–35, 104; and filter thesis, 268; and Fort, 104–5
Townshend, Chauncy Hare, 231, 235–37; Facts in Mesmerism, 231
transhuman, 260
translation thesis, 257, 262. See also filter thesis
transmediumization, 133
transmission thesis. See filter thesis
trauma-as-trigger: and Beauregard, 264; and Crowley, Aleister, 51; and the erotic subsuming the traumatic in Human Personality, 90; and Fort, 101; and Myers, 43, 57–62, 67, 90; and neuroscience, 259–60, 264, 310n5; and S. P. R., 43; and telepathic dreams announcing death of loved one, 24; and UFO abductions, 209
Tree of Gnosis, The (Couliano), 20
Truman Show, The, 31
Truzzi, Marcello, The Blue Sense, 309n47
Turner, Edith, 13, 17; Anthropology of Consciousness, 290n15
Twain, Mark, 16, 50, 295n45
Twining, Lieutenant General Nathan F., 152
2001: A Space Odyssey, 5
Tylor, Edward, 13
UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union (Vallee), 181, 184
UFO Experience, The (Hynek), 152, 155
UFO phenomenon, 6; and absurdity, 213; and aliens as signs, 214; and Ann Arbor case, 301n8; Brazilian Wave of 1977, 183–84; and Christian mysticism, 208–9; classification system of, 302n25; and coincidences with science fiction stories of 1880 to 1945, 207–8; as collective psyche balancing itself, 246; and colonization, 124; as coming from the future, 170; as control system, 167–69, 185, 187, 282, 303n45; European wave of 1954, 149; Fátima events as, 150, 153, 173, 182, 190, 275–82, 286; and folklore, 156–64, 195, 197, 208; and hagiography, 209; as hermeneutical realities, 183, 209–12; and insect, 298n114; as interdimensional, 182–83, 186–87; and Keel, John, 300n40, 313n26; Méheust’s interest in X that lies behind, 249; psychotropic reading of, 313n24; as real, 301n11; and religious studies, 191; and science fiction, 6, 166–67, 207–10, 214, 249; and science not up to task of explaining, 166; and sex, 301n23; and signal in the noise, 155–56, 194, 216, 243; and Super-Story, 122; and technology, 167, 173, 212; as unnameable thing, 210. See also abduction; flying saucers; sightings; technology
Ullman, Montague, Dream Telepathy, 4
Underhill, Evelyn, 311n26
University of California at Los Angeles, 181
University of Chicago, 9, 20, 181
University of Colorado, 149
University of Texas at Austin, 150
Ursule Mirouet (Balzac), 240
Valis: author’s experience of something similar, 34; Dick, Philip’s autobiographical description of, 71–72; Dick, Philip’s encounter with, 32; and fantastic as hermeneutical key to the paranormal, 33; and neuroscience, 258, 267; and Platonic realm, 34; and Vallee, 187, 189, 303n46, 306n94. See also Dick, Philip K.
Vallee, Jacques: and Agobar, 160–61, 196, 303n31; Anatomy of a Phenomenon, 152, 155, 156; and Bergier, Jacques, 186; and beyond reason, 144–45, 301n3; and Bullard, Thomas, 157–58, 302n28; and Cardan, Facius, 163; and classification system of sightings, 154–55, 302n25; and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 144, 155; comparative method of, 144, 158; and Condon Committee, 149; Confrontations, 181; and contribution of parallel between folklore and UFO phenomena, 157; and demiurge, 190; and Dick, Philip, 187, 303n46, 306n94; Dimensions, 181–83; early life of, 147–48; The Edge of Reality, 152; and esotericism, 145–46, 168–70, 191–92; Evans-Wentz, 161–62, 03n34;exile of, 180–81; and Ezekiel, 15 3, 190–91; and the fantastic, 163; and fantasy, 144; and Fátima, 173, 182; Forbidden Science, 181, 184, 186, 306n95; and gnosis of multidimensionality, 188, 194; and gnosis of the future, 187–88, 194; and gnosis of the rosy cross, 192–94; and Hall, Manly, 192–93, 306n98; and Hynek, J., 150–52, 155, 168–70, 180–81, 192–94; as inspiration for Claude Lacombe, 144; and Jung, 153, 172, 174, 243, 245; and Kazantsev, Alexander, 185; The Magonia Collection, 300n1; Martin, John, 153; and Méheust, 242–45, 309n49; Messengers of Deception, 181; and metalogic of encounter stories, 170–71; and Michel, Aimé, 148, 150, 159, 243; and Muller, Paul, 148; and multiverse, 144, 181–82, 186, 188; and the mystical, 145–46, 189, 196; personal experiences of, 189–90, 196; and physics of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 173; Prodigies, 309n50; and Project Blue Book, 146, 151–52, 301n8; and Project Grudge, 151–52; and Project Sign, 151–52, 154; and psychical component, 157, 217; psychic defined by, 171; Revelations, 181; Rosicrucian tradition, 161, 192–94; and science fiction, 166–68; as seldom read, 7; and the sexual, 163–66; and signal in the noise, 155–56, 194, 216, 243; social-control thesis of, 167–69, 185, 187, 282; and Soviet Union, 184–86; Sub-Space, 167; support of academics for, 181; and synchronicity, 189, 245, 306n94; and Thompson, William Irwin, 159; UFO Chronicles of the Soviet Union, 181; as underground legend, 185; and Valis, 187, 189, 303n46, 306n94. See also Fastwalker (Vallee); Invisible College, The (Vallee); Magonia; Passport to Magonia (Vallee); SRI
Vallee, Janine, 150, 164, 169; Challenge to Science, 152, 302
Vaughan, Alan, 4; Dream Telepathy, 4
Verne, Jules, 16, 124, 207–8; Robur le conquérant, 207
Versluis, Arthur, The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance, 308n36
Vilars, Abbé Montfaucon de, 161
Villas-Boas, Antonio, 164–66, 303n36
Virgil, 45, 47, 48
Virgin Mary. See Mary, the Virgin
Visionaries, Mystics and Contactees (Freixedo), 286
Viswanathan, Gauri, 28
Von Neumann, John, 211
voyant prodigieux, Un, or A Seer Extraordinaire (Méheust), 233
Wach, Joachim, 9
Wallace, Alfred Russell, 70, 72, 84, 231, 295n45
War of the Worlds (Wells), 124
Watson, Ian, Miracle Visitors, 308n22
Weber, Max, 21
Wells, H. G., 124, 128, 300n37
Wheeler, John, 307n19
Whitman, Walt, 230, 294n14
Wild Talents (Fort), vi, 98; and evolution, 132–34; and Fort’s experiments with own wild talents, 137–40; and God, 136; and parable of peaches, 102; as science mysticism, 123, 300n34
Williams, Dwight, The Way of the Explorer, 305n67
Will in Nature, The (Schopenhauer), 11
Winkelman, Michael, 13
Winter, Alision, 238–39; Mesmerized, 309n45
Wizard of Oz, 147
Wojtowicz, Slawek, Inner Paths to Outer Space, 313n24
Wolff, Robert Lee, Strange Stories, 291n27
Wolfson, Elliot R., Language, Eros, Being, 292n47
Wonder Woman, 163
Wordsworth, William, 47, 86, 294n18
World as Will and Representation, The (Schopenhauer), 11
X, not here
X-Files, The, 264
X-Men, The, 135, 137, 306n91
Yale University, 20
Yeats, William Butler, 16
Yoga, 18, 19
Zukav, Gary, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, 300n34
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